1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image capturing apparatus and control method thereof, and particularly relates to shooting techniques for shooting a plurality of images at different exposures.
2. Description of the Related Art
Autoexposure bracketing functions, in which a plurality of images are shot at different exposures than a correct exposure, have been known for some time. One merit of such functions is that underexposed or overexposed images are also shot, and thus even if highlight-detail loss or shadow-detail loss is present in a shot scene, images in which such highlight-detail loss or shadow-detail loss is suppressed can nevertheless be obtained. Furthermore, methods for automatically calculating exposure correction amounts and shooting images at pre- and post-correction exposure values in order to reduce highlight-detail loss and shadow-detail loss in shot scenes are also known.
With respect to such functions, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2006-157348, for example, discloses a method that calculates a luminance histogram of an image, determines whether or not overexposed or underexposed regions are present, calculates an exposure correction value based on a result of the determination, and shoots an image anew. Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2006-157348 also discloses a method that sets a plurality of exposure correction value candidates and selects an image having an optimal exposure correction value from images shot at each of the exposure correction values.
However, with the techniques disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2006-157348, it is necessary for a user to select an optimal exposure correction value from among many exposure correction value candidates, which can result in an increase in time lag when shooting, an increase in the amount of memory used, and so on.